The Seven Deadly Sins

As we all know, the 7 deadly sins was instilled by Pope Gregory, replacing the eight deadly sins of Ponticus.

the original eight being:
Gluttony; fornication; avarice; sorrow; anger; discouragement; vainglory; pride.
.
The new seven being:
lust, gluttony,greed,sloth,wrath,envy, and pride.

My question(s) for you is, should these sins be a part of Catholic/Christian theology, though they were not developed till the 4th century AD.
These sins seem to be a pervasive theme all through history, yet they were only developed by a Monk, but they seem to have become an intregal belief. Yet basically all other beliefs only stem from the bible. In my experience(and feel free to enlighten me here) there are not many other non-bible sources that fit into Catholic belief.


Do many Catholic/Christians follow this mantra still?

And in your opinion, do you think these are legitimate sins? If not, what do you think would be more appropriate?

The sins are only a way of pointing out the path to breaking the commandments, so to speak. A bit like Yoda's "fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering" kind of thing. Basically, it doesn't really matter who instituted the practice of calling them the "Deadly Sins", or if people "follow the mantra". All men should be able to embrace the logic here. Just try and avoid these kinds of things and you should be good to go. If it sounds like a bad idea, it probably is.

reply to post by EdenKaia


Well put. Not sure of the latin on but it but I would almost think that there would be a mnemonic to be made from the revised seven deadly sins.

Oh hmm, I like the origional eight! Things take on new meaning when by faith you are discouraged from wallowing and sorrowing. Strange they mixed them up.

reply to post by nixie_nox


They're certainly all something we need to look out for and they all individually have biblical support. However, the specific list found in the Bible is in Proverbs and it is very different from both lists above:

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Proverbs 6:16-19

I think that we should follow the "Seven Deadly Sins." They are a good standard to live ones live by. Most of the sins are understandable, the one I would hold to a degree in life that you should have is pride. I think that they meant extreme pride to the point of arrogance or narcissism. But everyone needs to have a little pride in the things they do and the things they believe in.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
These sins seem to be a pervasive theme all through history, yet they were only developed by a Monk, but they seem to have become an intregal belief.

romans 6:[23a] For the wages of sin is death;

while the seven ¨deadly¨ sins is a nice list, the death sentence is by no means limited to those sins.

we die because we all sin, no matter how ¨small¨ the sin.

romans 5:[12] Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

the problem i find with the 7 or 8 or whatever deadly sins is that its stems from the babylonian belief that you can attain salvation by works. babylonian mysteries used to ¨quantify¨ sins so that a person can figure out if they are ahead or behind in their salvation.

the NT clearly shows that man cannot ¨earn¨ salvation, rather it is by the grace of god backed up by works that we can recieve an approved standing.

Yet basically all other beliefs only stem from the bible. In my experience(and feel free to enlighten me here) there are not many other non-bible sources that fit into Catholic belief.

actually, the catholic church is known for extrabiblical doctrine

My next question is that are these sins considered sins only if acted upon? Or does thinking about them qualify?

jesus said that someone who looks at a woman with lust is sinning in his heart. but that doesnt necessarily mean that they are actually sinning. its probably more of a warning what thinking of the sin will eventually lead to.

jas 1:[14] But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
[15] Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

so while thinking of a sin isnt necessarily in itself a sin, it can lead to sin.

remember that cain wasnt punished until he actually killed his brother, he was harboring bad feelings before and god pointed it out to him and even tried to appeal to him to stop. but it wasnt until cain actually did the deed that he was punished

reply to post by EdenKaia


So overeating can lead a person to murdering someone? That's interesting but I guess it's possible. That whole gluttony sin sort of makes buffets a tad obsolete..

Originally posted by ghaleon12
reply to post by EdenKaia

 

So overeating can lead a person to murdering someone? That's interesting but I guess it's possible. That whole gluttony sin sort of makes buffets a tad obsolete..

Well, I wouldn't say that overeating would lead a person to commit murder, but rather that commiting any of the seven deadly sins could lead a person down a more dangerous road theologically. For example, a religious person may say that your body is your temple and to abuse it in any way is a sin. Following this logic, gluttony would be a prime example of mistreating your body. Most especially if you died from it. Could that not then be considered a form of suicide?

Now don't get me wrong, these are obviously extremes. I am merely pointing out what I believe the point of establishing a list of "deadly sins" was. Not necessarily that these things would be horrible and unclean in the eyes of god, but that they would overall lead to your downfall in some way or another.

reply to post by EdenKaia


I can see what you mean. If someone sufferes from gluttony and obviously can't take care of themselves, you wouldn't expect them to care for other people, easily setting them up for other sins.

Right. I believe the intention was just to help guide people in the right direction. Instead of just saying, "Don't kill people and don't steal things", they said, these are your red flags. Keep an eye out and all will be groovy.

I just noticed the deadly sin of lust when the ad for the swimsuits popped up in the right column and I was like...

Hell here I come!!!

Then I realized I'm hungry...crap...

Can't they loosen them from seven deadly sins to say seven probably not a good ideas or something.

In my opinion the seven deadly sins are the ones that can do the most harm to you

Lust- can lead to obsession and obsessed people tend to do bad things, it can also lead to another of the sins

Envy- can cause you to hate everyone that has what you do not

Gluttony- what ever you have too much of can hurt you physically to much food obesity and all that goes with it.

Greed- makes you a consumer of all things to the point where you will hurt others to get what you want

Sloth- can so the same as gluttony to stretch it if you are to lazy to change the battery in your smoke detector cause you to perish or loose everything in a fire.

Wrath- never a good thing always makes you abusive to others and you may find the one person that is a bigger bad arse than you.

Pride- to proud to ask for help could lead you into doing something you know nothing about and possibly hurting or killing yourself. ( I know that one was weak but couldn’t think of anything else.)

Simply my opinions.

reply to post by Ant4AU

I believe you're more or less correct, but the way I'd put it is this: notice that the seven deadly sins are not actual sins at all - sins, as I was taught in my choirboy days, are thoughts, words or deeds. The seven deadly 'sins' are actually the seven motivations that make people commit actual sins of thought, word or deed. If you think about it, the Seven Deadlies cover all the bases - no wicked act could arise from any other motivation than these.

If you were religious, you might call them crimes of the soul.